


An Ever Watchful Eye

by torianmist



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Blood, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Flashbacks, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Past Child Abuse, Protective Natasha, Protective Nick Fury, Self-Harm, Shock, Team as Family, mild disassociation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-14
Updated: 2015-06-14
Packaged: 2018-04-04 10:18:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,806
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4133790
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torianmist/pseuds/torianmist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Guardian Angels come in all shapes and sizes and are not always who you think they may be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Ever Watchful Eye

An unseeing eye slid down from gunmetal gray heavens. High definition screens cocooned in Helicarrier depths. Light fazed into dark. And the debrief began.

Images seen through the haze of mounting trepidation kaleidoscoped onto the screen. An elevator shaft cobwebbed with fractures and dust. A jigsaw of broken timber and steel. Light piercing the small tunnel high above his head. A beam of hope shadowed on a night sky. A sky that blended seamlessly into a morass of black hung with a barbed wire netting of twinkling light. A beauty terrible in it's brilliance. Frigid blues tinged with the aura of white stars lit the flame of memory. Tony clenched fists that steadily started to shake. Blunt nails digging deep into the tender flesh of his palms. Bit down on lips tingling with incipient panic and swallowed down the knot in his stomach. Light seared his vision. The silent scream of a host of souls extinguished morphed with the muted sobs of the child in his arms. And Tony's world, an angry heated orange hue trailing smoke of brown and gray, caught fire. Heart rate accelerating, he gazed through eyes that refused to blink at an unforgiving screen. Watched himself shuck the armor, wrap the child so quiet, so trusting~Make her safe. Keep her safe~ into the chest plate before he sank to his knees. Bile thick on his tongue. Unprotected in a dark, cold place that stank of rank fear sweat. That echoed with dripping water. Walls closing in close enough to touch him. 

Distantly he registered himself pushing back his chair. The clatter of wood on steel floor calling attention to him. He sunk to the floor. Pushed himself back against the Carrier's walls. Engines thrummed through his back, up over his shoulders and reached deep into his soul, Syncopated heartbeats. His and his creation. Soaring higher. No air. No peace. Just all the encompassing obsidian soup of fear. Hands reached out in his peripheral vision. Big, heavy, male. Shadows closing in. Many. Too many. Fingers closed on his arms, dug in deep and on a sob Tony's world shattered.

Natasha felt rather than saw the change in Tony. The aura of movement, of life than he wore as close as skin suddenly ceased and Tony was still. Preternaturally still. He was barely breathing. Low, shallow, ragged. Her eyes fell to his clenched hands. Noted the thin streaks of vivid red against white knuckles. Moved up to his face and froze. Tony was white to his lips. She watched as he pulled in a shattered breath, released a broken sob and fell to his knees his fingers uncurling to push himself back against the wall. One hand clasped his chest, the other raised defensively. Eyes flicking left to right she took in the stances of her team mates as they moved swiftly to Tony's side and Tony's reaction to them. Took them in, cataloged her response and acted. Standing between Tony and the others she raised a hand and breathed out one word. 

“Cease.” 

Dropping into a protective stance a foot from Tony, she shook her head as Cap again moved forward. She pointed sharply at the far wall. Explanation succinct. 

“Flashback. Multi-layered. Cross remembered. You're all male. Just like they were before.”

Not waiting to see if they obeyed, Natasha turned back to Tony. She could see the pulse pounding in his neck. His eyes wild and panicked. Totally unseeing his surroundings. Moving slowly, telegraphing her movements, she inched closer. Enough that Tony could scent her. Soft murmurs fell from Tony's white lips. A grab bag of languages. Listening intently, she picked up varying dialects, German, Arabic, Italian. French. Latching onto the last, Natasha focused hard. “Maman”. Blinking hard, Natasha began repeating Tony's name softly. Low, lyrical. A melody for a broken child. A minute went by. A heartbeat of lifetimes. Damp eyelashes lifted hesitantly. Brown eyes focusing slowly on her. Unsure. Afraid. A voice wrecked for the barbs of forced down nightmares.

“Tasha?”

Natasha smiled softly, held out a hand slowly. Touched Tony's knee tentatively. The eye of the storm. 

Movement from behind her cast shadows over the calm and Tony pushed back hard. Hands clenched defensively around raised knees. Natasha whipped around glaring balefully, swearing viciously under her breath and Cap and Clint moved back, hands raised. Apology writ on their faces. Turning back to Tony, she picked up the low whine under his breath. “Not safe. Need big man.” The low panting was getting heavier now. Hyperventilating turning to breath holding. Clenched fingers running deeply over vulnerable skin of wrists. Physical misdirection. Tony was trying to ground himself with counter texturing and drawing blood as he did it. Calculating risks, Natasha reached out to gently touch Tony's booted foot. His head snapped back, eyes roving wildly until they snagged on hers. Confusion clearing, facial recognition without environmental awareness, Tony whispered breathlessly.

“Tasha? B'man. Pl'se.”

He was slurring his words now. The adrenaline crash sinking him under and the soft 'please' broke her. Reaching up to her comm, she tapped in a code and waited. 

 

Wetness, thick and warm trickling down his arm tugged Tony from the cloak of darkness that had fallen on him. Red. Blood. His own. Jerking his head back at a touch to his foot, red again filled his vision. Different. Warm and familiar. Natasha. Friend. Scanning wildly, Tony caught shadows looming in the corner of his eye. Safe but not safe. Trying to calm his breathing, Tony ran his hand over his eyes smearing salt with blood and forced out his request again. “Big man. Please.” Before curling his hands around his knees again to wait.

 

Salvation came through the door with vengeful intent, cloaked in black and trailing the familiar scents of leather and gunmetal. 

Ignoring the blatant shock of his remaining male team members, Nick Fury focused on the taut heap of pain topped with dark, tangled hair that had pressed himself to the wall of the Carrier. Stopping inches away from Tony, Fury dropped to one knee. Body planted firmly between Tony and the rest of the room. Softly, in a pitch that no-one who knew or worked under him would believe him capable of, Fury called to the boy in the man in front of him.

“Anthony”.

Messy hair spilled across flushed cheekbones as Tony rolled his head to the side on his knees. Nick waited a beat, registering the pale cheeks smeared with blood and tears, The irregular stuttering of  
Tony's chest and the scrape of nails over denim as Tony worked toward pulling himself back to the present. Nick waited patiently until Tony's eyes lifted and locked on his.

“M'Fury?”

Nick swallowed down a wash of memories of small chubby hands grasping at his. A birdlike chirp of excitement from young lips as a barely out of toddler hood Tony Stark climbed over Nick's knee to reach the telescope in the corner of his office while his father,Howard wrinkled his brow in disapproval. Nick nodded and leaned forward, leather trench falling to form a warm humid cave covering them both and reached out slowly, testing, waiting. Long, slender fingers grazed his as Tony reached out with one hand, the other still resting palm down on the outer hull of the Helicarrier. Nick saw Tony's lips moving silently and he knew, he just knew that Tony was slowing his heart rate to the thrum of the carrier's big engines. Turning his head, Nick hid a small smile in his collar. This boy. Frustrating. Challenging. But worth it. Closing his fingers around Tony's outstretched ones he caught the freezing cold of them, the still glazed look in Tony's eyes, the slight slurring of his words. Mild shock. Cupping Tony's jaw with one hand, Fury lifted Tony's head until Tony snagged his gaze and stayed. 

“Lancelot.” Nick murmured.

Tony's brow furrowed slightly.

“Mordred.” He whispered back.

Nick nodded, encouraging.

“Guinevere.” Fury offered.

Tony made a moue of distaste.

“No. Arthur.” He cocked his head. Brown eyes clearing more. “Why Nick? “

Fury shook his head, getting a grip on Tony's forearms. “Because life hates us kid. Come on,” Fury stood, pulling Tony with him, “up”. Shrugging out of coat, he slipped it over Tony's shoulders, Safety and home in worn leather. 

“No,” Tony struggled with the words. “Why w'ld say Guinevere? Not a knight.” 

Nick grinned openly. 

“Ah. There you are. Welcome back.”

Settling an arm around Tony's waist, Fury led him to the door, smiling inwardly as Natasha followed. His two most wayward chicks. Strange combination but both loyal and fiercely protective of each other. One day he would get the full details on the mission that set these two in stone.

Tony startled back as he noticed movement coming at him from the far wall. Fury steadied him with an arm across his shoulders and a glare across the room. Turning his eye on Natasha, Fury motioned her forward.

'You know Natasha, Tony. Stay with her.”

He waited until Tony let Natasha slip a small hand into his. Blood sliding on sweat. Until he caught Natasha whispering a soft “'Tonio” and heard it answered with a quiet “'Talia' before he turned and crossed the room.

Rogers stepped forward immediately, concern and confusion crossing his face.

“Sir?”

“Nothing to see here, Cap. Debrief later.”

Rogers shifted on his feet clearly unsure and off center.

“But Stark”.

Nick cut a look across the room, Tony was still pallid, up under his own power but for how much longer? Nick turned back to the rest of his team.

“His name is Tony.” He said, voice low, sharp with serious intent. “This stays in this room. It never happened. You saw nothing. You heard nothing. You treat him no differently. Or you answer to me. Understood?”

The remaining team nodded. Fury searched their eyes, saw truth and understanding and nodded back. He had crossed back to Tony and nudged him through the door, hand low on his back before Rogers risked one last “Sir? How did you know what would help him? How did Tony know?...” 

Fury paused, one hand on Tony's shoulder the other on the door handle. 

“I've known this man since he was a boy. He just chooses his times to remember.” He began. 

Fury paused, he thought of the color brown, tangled, unruly hair falling into laughing eyes of matching color. Of blue's dark and mottled on young skin. Of clear diamond tears falling silently. Breathing deep, he tightened his grip on Tony and shaking his head shutting the door slowly as he answered quietly. 

“He's one of mine Cap. Has been since he was small. That's all you need to know.” 

The heavy pressurized door closed, cutting off his final words.

“ Everyone needs secrets. This one more than most.” 

**

**Author's Note:**

> Written for two prompts on my tumblr (starkwest) that merged into one.
> 
> 1). "Tony having a panic attack and one of them talking him down. Not Steve though. Natasha or Clint would be nice."
> 
> 2). "I loved your head canon on Nick and Tony. Could I prompt you a fic prompt about a protective over Tony, Nick?"


End file.
